I’ve been reading reviews about Studio monitors and I’m curious what some of you may use or what would you use if it were possible ($$ wise) Im thinking about getting the Mackie HR824, or mabey the Behringer B2031 Truth Monitor, I’ve seen some good comments about both.
I use a pair Yorkville YSM1. The Truths are #### cheap, but hype the top and bottom ends imo.
I’m still using Mordaunt-Short MS25Ti speakers with a Denon PMA-707 amplifier. The speakers are sort of esoteric English hifi (not high end, but close) from the late eighties. Pretty good ones, although a bit shy on the bass side.
(AKG K240M phones for the low end checks.)
I use a pair of ESI nEar 05 active monitor speakers. They are very transparent IMHO. They cost me about $330. I have a good jazz recording I use as a ‘reference’ recording when listening to speakers, and the nEar 05’s actually disclosed a minor flaw in the recording, microphone-wise - the two microphones used to pick up the sound from a vibraphone were actually spaced a bit too far apart, leaving a ‘gap’ in the stereo image of the vibraphone. Not even my $250 BeyerDynamic headphones are capable of revealing that! The nEar 05’s do lack a bit in the sub bass department, but I can live with that - ESI actually makes a subwoofer - SW-8000 to go with the nEar 05 pair, in case you can’t.
regards, Nils
just got a pair of alesis mk2 actives. a little hyped in the upper mids, but nothing you can’t get used to.
VERY clean with a tight low end. and they get loud if you need it.
i’m still getting used to having such accurate monitoring.
later…
I use the Mackie HR824s and am very pleased with them. Nils practice of listening to reference recordings is something that should be standard among the forum members. Remember, too, that room acoustics play an important part in the performance of any monitor. Poor acoustics will make even the best monitor give unsatisfactory results.
Samson Resolv 65 (passive) speakers
Samson power amp.
I also have an old hi-fi amp that I use for headphone monitoring and some hi-fi speakers that I have been known to use.
The Samson stuff was the best I could afford at the time and was a reasonable step up. They are not the greatest, but they’re OK and I like them. The power amp does hum (not through the speakers - it hums acoustically), which was a bit annoying until it got burried in the back of my rack.
Whatever you do, read up on placement. It makes a difference. I was having some problems which I put down to my room. I then tried some different placements and although the room is still giving a bit of a problem, it’s now minimal as opposed to major.
Mark
EVENT TR-8 Monitors and Sennheiser HD280 Pro cans. The Events are great IMO. Very clean and transparent with flat repsonse. The HD280’s are nice for working on stuff without getting yelled at by the wife. I have taken to ONLY mixing/mastering with the Events though.
Reference listening is a MUST IMO.
TG
Event 20/20bas here.
Roland RSM-90.
I only use them because I’m cheap. I got them for about 1/2 the cost on eBay. Howver, there work for me. They’re certainly better than anyone other monitor I’ve ever used.
Passive Tannoy Reveals.
I use a pair of Polk R20’s that I got on ebay plus an inexpensive passive subwoofer. The key to making this system work is that I hooked up a graphic equalizer that I had laying around and tuned the system to represent roughly an average of several other systems that I was using as a reference (my good home stereo, the computer speakers on our other PC, a boom box, and my car stereo). Before I added the equalizer my mixes had been too bassy because my monitor system was too lean. After eq’ing, my mixes are coming out about right.
I use the good old Yamaha ns10’s that most people say are crap, but they work for me. I tend to critical eq with the sony 7025 headphones and then check it on the monitors.
…
I use an old pair of JBL 4311 studio monitors, not sure of newer products, most I have heard seem to muddy the bass and kick drums sounds.???
alesis monitor 1 mk2 passives driven by an old (I guess 1980ish) but very good (ebay purchase) JVC integrated amp. Good features of the amp (apart from it is very quiet) are a bypass button for the bass/treb/bal sliders (i.e. can make a dry signal), loudness button that adds a bit of compressor (or thats what it seems to do) two sets of aux inputs, that are front panel selectable and a switch for A/B speaker sets independent of headphones. It all makes for a very usable rig and the amp was one of the best £25 I’ve spent for a long time.
| Quote (Ali @ Sep. 16 2004,14:46) |
| At the risk of being controversial, shouldn't we be listening on car speakers or jukeboxes or ghetto blasters or whatever? |
That's why you always do checks in the car, on your home stereo, anywhere you can test. You use the studio monitors to get a good "true" sound, and then make sure that "truely good" sound doesn't phase out or otherwise sound horrid on other speaker systems.
That being said, I use a pair of "Touch" computer speakers with a built in 80 watt amplifier. So I guess that makes a bit of a hipocrite. *sigh* oh well. Anyways, I actually like my speakers. It gives a pretty accurate sound without a whole lot of coloration (to my ears). And I don't have 300 bucks for good speakers anwyas.
fish
Maaszy, how do you like the M1 mk2 passives? And teryeah, what about the Tannoy Reveal passive?
I’m considering these since I already have a reasonable amp. It’s birthday time again, but there is a budget… At any rate, it’ll be a step up from the mediocre “hifi” speakers that I currently press into service.
Matt.
Quote (Ali @ Sep. 16 2004,14:46)
At the risk of being controversial, shouldn't we be listening on car speakers or jukeboxes or ghetto blasters or whatever?
That's why you always do checks in the car, on your home stereo, anywhere you can test. You use the studio monitors to get a good "true" sound, and then make sure that "truely good" sound doesn't phase out or otherwise sound horrid on other speaker systems.
The point is, you need to mix on speakers that reproduce, as accurately as possible, all frequencies. You can then *check* how your mix sounds on all those other listening possibilities.
Listening to commercial music helps to calibrate your ears to your speakers, but if they are leaving out frequencies you will not be able to mix properly. Just say for example, your mix speakers can't produce, I dunno, the frequency that makes your guitars sound really honky. In the studio, all will sound fine and dandy. Sure you will hear it eventually (hopefully) when you take the mix to your car, how much better it is to be able to hear it in the studio - get a closer mix first time.
$0.02
Mark